QuoteReplyTopic: Khazar Jews and Ashkenazy Posted: 11-Oct-2005 at 08:13
This is a very interesting albeit controversial to the extreme subject and one that bears discussion and knowledgeable forumeers who either know more about it or can find more data pertaining the relevance of the claims.
Those claims are boiling down to a single phrase: European Jews (those commonly reffered to as Askhenazy, in contrast to the Sephardim) that comprise about 80% of todays Jewish population worldwide, are not of Hebrew descent, but of Khazarian (ah, a boon to our resident Turanists, seeing as Khazaria was prominently Turko-Turanic, right?) .
Here is a relevant news story.
The Jews That Aren't BY LEO HEIMAN: Copley News Service TEL AVIV Nathan M. Pollock has a beef with the Israeli government. His elaborate plans to celebrate this September the 1,000th anniversary of the Jewish-Khazar alliance were summarily rejected. An elderly, meek-looking man who migrated to Israel from Russia 43 years ago, Pollock ekes out a living as a translator of scientific texts and proofreader in a publishing firm. But his great passion, hobby and avocation is historic research. He has devoted 40 of his 64 years to trying to prove that six out of 10 Israelis and nine out of 10 Jews in the Western Hemisphere are not real Jews' Jews, but descendents of fierce Khazar tribes which roamed the steppes of southern Russia many centuries ago. For obvious reasons the Israeli authorities are not at all eager to give the official stamp of approval to Pollock's theories. "For all we know, he may be 100 per cent right," said a senior government official. "In fact, he is not the first one to discover the connection between Jews and Khazars. Many famous scholars, Jews and non-Jews, stressed these links in their historical research works. "But who can tell today what percentage of Khazar blood flows in our veins, if at all? And who can declare with any degree of scientific accuracy which Jews are Jews and which are descendants of this Tartar-Mongol race? "As a matter of fact, our alleged descent from the Khazars is the central theme of Arab propaganda," he added. "The Arabs claim most European Jews have no right to be in Israel in the first place because they are not descended from Biblical Hebrews, but from Tartar-Mongol nomad tribes, including the Khazars who were converted to Judaism en masse 1,000 years ago,"
OPINION DIVIDED
Scientific opinion in Israel is divided on the subject. No one argues the basic premise: that a group of 12,000 Jews, fleeing from persecution and wars in the Holy Land, in the wake of Byzantine and Moslem conquests, made the long overland trek to Persia, crossed the territory of today's Turkestan in Central Asia and found asylum in the Khazar Kingdom, which occupied a vast area between the Caspian Sea, Volga River, Ural Mountains, Black Sea and the Polish borderlands. In the year 965 the Khazars were defeated for the first time in 500 years, by Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev. King Bulan III of Khazaria concluded that Prince Sviatoslav emerged victorious from the war because his troops and mercenaries were Christians, while h i s nomads were pagan worshippers. The king and his nobles embraced Judaism in 965, and in 966 a royal edict was passed enforcing Judaism as the only legal religion in the Khazar Kingdom. Tribesmen had to undergo circumcision, learn Hebrew prayers and recognize Jewish rabbis as their spiritual leaders on pain of death. As other Jews who were persecuted in the Middle East, medieval Europe and Spain at that time, heard of the new Jewish-Khazar kingdom, rumors spread that the Messiah had arrived at long last. There were several consecutive migration waves to Khazaria, via Persia, Greece and Poland. Pollock believes the traditional Russian anti-Semitism probably stems from that epoch when Hebrew-speaking Khazar raiders attacked Russian villages, killed the men folk, abducted women, forcibly converted them to Judaism and married them in full-fledged religious ceremonies. This also would explain why so many European Jews are blond and blue-eyed, with a slight Mongol slant to their eyes, as well as the total absence of Semitic features among many Israelis of European descent.
MONGOLS DESTROY KINGDOM
The flourishing Jewish-Khazar Kingdom was destroyed in 1239 by the Mongol invasion of Batu Khan. Following the Mongol invasion and conquest, surviving members of Jewish-Khazar tribes trekked west and settled in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, Romania and the Ukraine. How can one find out if he is a "Khazar Jew" or a "Hebrew Jew?" According to Pollock, whose parents came from Poland, if your name is Halperin, Alpert, Halpern, Galpern, etc., you are a 100 per cent Khazar. "Alper" means "brave knight" in the Khazar tongue, and the name was granted by the king to the most distinguished warriors. Names like Kaplan, Caplon, Koppel and the like are positive proof of Khazar descent, according to the scholar. "Kaplan" means "fierce hawk" in the Khazar language. Kogan, Kangan, Kaganvich show aristocratic descent from Kagan-Hagan, King Bulan's chief minister.
More data not impartial, I fear can be found here:
The writings in this site reveal also that this subject (as every historical/ethnological/archaeological case whatsoever) is used to facilitate political agendas that the Khazar (Askhenazy) Jews are certainly not entitled even by biblical terms to a land they have no ancestral from. The implications in the Israel-Palestine (Arab) conflict is quite visible
I think thats a rather annoying side effect, but despite that I am quite convinced that the European Jews, their vast majority at least, are not of Hebrew origin, but of Khazar. What do you think?
Not all European Jews could concievably be considered descendant from
the Khazar types. A great many of them would be descendant thom those
who fled Spain. But i guess the further east you go, the less likely that becomes.
You can find almost anything on Khazars at Khazaria.com
On Askhenazim being partly Khazar, it's surely true:
Advanced genetic testing, including Y-DNA and mtDNA haplotyping, of
modern Jewish communities around the world, has helped to determine which
of the communities are likely to descend from the Israelites and which are
not, as well as to establish the degrees of separation between the groups.
Important studies archived here include the University College London
study of 2002, Ariella Oppenheim's study of 2001,
Ariella Oppenheim's study of 2000, Michael Hammer's study of 2000,
and others.
Key findings:
The main ethnic element of Ashkenazim (German and Eastern European
Jews), Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews), Mizrakhim (Middle
Eastern Jews), Juhurim (Mountain Jews of the Caucasus), Italqim (Italian
Jews), and most other modern Jewish populations of the world is
Israelite. The Israelite haplotypes fall into haplogroups J and E.
Ashkenazim also descend, in a smaller way, from European peoples such
as Slavs and Khazars. The non-Israelite haplogroups include Q
(typically Central Asian) and R1a1 (typically Eastern European).
Dutch Jews from the Netherlands also descend from northwestern Europeans.
Sephardim also descend, in a smaller way, from various non-Israelite
peoples.
Georgian Jews (Gruzim) are a mix of Georgians and Israelites.
Yemenite Jews (Temanim) are a mix of Yemenite Arabs and Israelites.
Moroccan Jews, Algerian Jews, and Tunisian Jews are mainly Israelites.
Libyan Jews are mainly Berbers.
Ethiopian Jews are almost exclusively Ethiopian, with little or no
Israelite ancestry.
The Spanish Jews fled to muslim states like Iran, Turkey and the Arab lands mostly.
Some 40,000 of them went to the combined Netherlands (modern day
benelux), and many others scatered all around Europe, especialy the
Balkans, and moved north at a later date. Others still fled to the Americas, many found refuge in the
short lived Dutch colonies in Brazil (before moving back to the
Netherlands afterwards), and others formed what became the Ladino
community.
So a large number of them stayed in Europe, and are the ancestors of many European Jews.
Khazars were between two superpower at that time, the Islamic Abbasid empires and the Christian Orthodox Byzentine Empire. Their chose of Judaism was for the reasons of maintaining their independance and seperation as a nation. Now the sources that describes Jews of Europe as having an origin from the Khazars is close to accurate. In fact, it is surprising that even some Andalucian Jews who immigrated to Muslim countries after the exile from Spain, and while they are called Sephardim jews, they in fact share the Khazar's inheritance.
"We have seen descendants of the khazars in Toledo, Pupils of the Wise, and they have told us that the remnant of them is of the rabbinical belief." (written by Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo, Spain in "The Book of Tradition" in 1161)
D.J. Kaufman
Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when youd have preferred to talk.
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Arrrgh!!"
